The Wrong Genre

Black Sheep

No one else should be coming at this point, except perhaps Maestro— but this voice clearly wasn't the mastermind, it was much too cheerful. In fact, everyone in HQ, after looking questioningly at the door for a moment, turned their gazes to Zakum. Because the voice sounded like his— more like his than he had been sounding actually, because this voice had the bombastic energy that Zakum usually carried.

Zakum looked at the source of the voice with only a slight tilt of his head to convey his confusion. None of the heroes looked at Romulus, but if they had it would have been clear that he recognized this voice— and it wasn't Zakum. He grimaced at the doorway, looking annoyed but also resigned— almost as if he had expected this, but wished it wouldn't have happened.

"Maestro," he called quietly back into the hallway he had appeared from, "he's here."

That was one other person that no one had known was here in headquarters. Flashmob wondered vaguely if they needed to up security, or perhaps if they should just move headquarters altogether. That train of thought screeched to a grinding halt when a blond man swung around the corner and grinned blindingly into the room.

"Found you~" he cheered, looking for all the world like he hadn't broken into somewhere he shouldn't have been.

As in, he even looked like someone who should be in HQ. The man was almost a perfect replica of Zakum, the only real difference being that his hairstyle was more spikey, and his grin seemed to be a little wider. He looked, overall, like a nice person though and without them logically consenting to it, it entered the heroes heads that this was probably one of Maestro's minions and that he was likely in the same position as the poor clone.

"Who are you?" Interdit demanded, despite the assumption that he was another clone like Zakum. It hadn't really occurred to them that there could be more than one before this moment, but he was just a creation of science after all, so it stood to reason that there could be multiple. Stravarius looked just as baffled as the rest of them for once.

Before the new blond could answer, a cold voice came from deeper inside HQ— Maestro had emerged.

"Zack," he glared, clearly displeased at the man's appearance.

"Maestro, is he-?" Stravaius asked immediately upon hearing the voice, swiveling to look at Maestro with wide eyes.

"I told you he was fine," Maestro interrupted before the blond could finish, taking his eyes off the newly appeared man to give Stravarius a look as if he couldn't believe the blond had the audacity to doubt him. Stravarius didn't look cowed in the slightest, but he did seem to be contemplating something.

"Hey cousin~!" Zack practically squealed, taking advantage of Maestro's distraction and throwing himself forward with arms flung wide, clearly in an attempt to hug Maestro. Said mastermind, for half a second, allowed a disgusted look to flash across his face before stepping out of the way and watching the man glomp thin air. "That was so mean! I just want a little hug, can't you even give me that E—"

Maestro had been content with ignoring the new man, but when he started that last word suddenly his eyes flashed and he clamped a hand over the blond's mouth. Zack's eyes went wide in innocence, but Maestro could feel him smirk beneath his hand. There was a tense pause in which the whole room simply stared at the duo.

"You're disgusting," he scowled after a moment, retracting his hand and promptly wiping it on Zack's sleeve before stalking around the room to put some distance between them, ending up behind where Stravarius was sitting. "This thing isn't my minion," he informed the heroes.

"I'm a thing? You say that when you still keep that creepy copy hanging around?" Zack pouted, pointing accusingly at Zakum, whose expression did not change.